Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc.

2007 HCHL news items (in reverse chronological order)

12/19/2007
Our Resources page has been updated, adding Wellness Information Zone and dropping HeathWeb, which has been discontinued. The Guides page and Holyoke Information page have also been updated today.

12/7/2007
Medical and heath science librarians of Western Mass (W.M.H.I.C.) met at Shriner's Hospital, Springfield. Guest Janet Eckert, WMRLS Continuing Education Consultant, spoke about the services of the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System (WMRLS), including their upcoming Workshops.

Saul Franklin, Director of the MassCHIP program, guided us through the features of MassCHIP = Massachusetts Community Health Information Profile, a service of the MA Dept of Public Health. He emphasized that he is available by phone (617-624-5512) to help people construct customized queries in this complex, powerful database of statistics about Massachusetts health and economic indicators. (See data sources.) Standard reports (“Instant Topics”) are easily viewable via the web on any computer. Customized reports require that you download client software.

masschip.state.ma.us MassCHIP homepage
MassCHIP Instant Topics
MassCHIP Custom Reports -require registration, and downloading of latest version of the client software and updated database.

We had a lively discussion of ways to make MassCHIP more accessible. All agreed that it needs to become fully web-based. Mac users cannot now download the software. Downloading requires an administrative password for each computer (an extra step probably involving an IT administrator in most organizations); and the download must be repeated whenever the database is significantly updated, which happens several times a year, at unpredictable intervals. The existing MassCHIP staff (of 3) is too small and busy to undertake the reprogramming of this complex system. MassCHIP would need more funding. A related, and even more fundamental need, is for upgrading the Vital Statistics operation in the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics (collecting data since 1841!) -- one very important source of MassCHIP data. These old state systems are struggling to keep up with current demands.

The next WMHIC meeting, scheduled for March 7, 2008, at BayState Medical, will feature Michele Eberle's presentation on “The Healthy Librarian”.

12/4/2007
Sandy met with Kathy Viens and others on the Fitness Subcommittee of the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council (HFFPC). We are compiling a database of organizations that offer fitness, sports, and recreation activities to Holyoke residents.

12/1/2007
A letter from the PlaneTree Health Library in California, one of the original models that inspired this effort in Holyoke, seeks "bridge" funding as they evolve from hospital sponsorship to a more independent status. They have now reorganized as a separate non-profit and donations may be made online.

11/20/2007
Work continued on revising a MEDSPEAK brochure, “Deciphering HIV/AIDS MEDSPEAK”. Sandy received an updated draft from Martha Prescott (of Western Massachusetts Health Information Consortium, which volunteered to help MAHSLIN with this Medical Library Assocation project), and forwarded it to some Holyoke volunteers for additional review. Sandy did additional editing in early December. The results will eventually become part of the Deciphering MEDSPEAK series published by the Medical Library Association. Jim Craig had helped revise another of these brochures last year. The goal is to make the medical language understandable to the public.

10/24/2007
Officers for 2008 were elected at the Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Inc., Annual Meeting:

10/18/2007
Regional Forum on Health Disparities | Confronting Healthcare Disparities: Is Commonwealth Care the Answer? October 18, 2007, 8:00AM-3:00PM at the Holyoke Health Center, 230 Maple Street, Holyoke, MA. See www.enddisparities.org/ for more information.

10/17/2007
Email notice sent to HCHL distribution list announcing our upcoming meeting and program:

Annual Meeting and Online Workshop
Wednesday October 24, 4:00 - 5:30 pm
in the Library at Holyoke Community College
(in the Donahue Building, marked DON on this campus map).
Come see what was added to our "virtual library" in 2007.
Come explore the improvements in MedlinePlus.
Bring any puzzling health questions you might have;
Test how well these online resources work for YOUR purposes.

9/28/2007
Western Massachusetts Health Information Consortium (WMHIC) meeting 9-12 at Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA. Program by Liz Farrell, professional organizer, about managing time, information and space in an information age.

9/26/2007
Sandy Ward and Judy Atkin attended a meeting of Holyoke coalition representatives at Enlace de Familias and heard a presentation about the Healthy City initiative in Fall River, MA. See Healthy City Fall River Home Page. This was the third in a series of “coalition of coalitions” meetings; Holyoke has over 35 separate coalitions! One subcommittee on which Judy and Sandy have been working (with Jody Spitz, of Holyoke Family Literacy Coalition, and Jenny Navasky, Holyoke Health Center) aims to create an information-sharing resource directory/database/website for Holyoke. Tentative name: Holyoke Unites. The group decided to go forward with the Holyoke Unites proposal. For more information, see separate webpage.

8/29/2007
Holyoke Senior Fest Picnic, hosted by the Council on Aging and the Holyoke Parks & Recreation Dept, at Mater Dolorosa Social Hall 11:00 am-2:00 pm, with Sandy Ward staffing an information table promoting MedlinePlus and our own Senior Health webpage. Among the handouts are tri-fold MedlinePlus brochures in English and Spanish (downloadable in PDF format from NER NN/LM Training materials webpage).

8/7/2007
Javier Crespo, announced a new NLM Request for Proposals for health information outreach projects for 2008. See NN/LM NER's webpage about funding options: http://nnlm.gov/ner/funding/. The complete Request for Proposal (RFP) is available in PDF format at: http://nnlm.gov/ner/funding/rfps/Health_Info_Outreach_Subcontract_y2.pdf

8/6/2007
Resource Directory planning meeting at Enlace de Familia, 3-4:30 pm, Aug 6, 2007. A group of people are trying to create an online directory of Holyoke services and resources. One example already exists at Holyoke Community College: socialservicesinfo.pbwiki.com HCC's Social Services Information Wiki, which uses pbwiki software (see http://pbwiki.com/).

HCHL will participate in the Senior Picnic, hosted by the Council on Aging, on the last Wednesday in August.

6/22/2007
HCHL participated in the Community Health Fair run by the CEPA Program on Friday, June 29, 10am-4pm at 330 Appleton (corner of Chestnut and Appleton), Holyoke. Food, music, balloons, and of course, many tables of information from community agencies and local service providers. The HCHL table promoted MedlinePlus and other reliable health information resources.

CEPA, Centro de Educacion, Prevencion Y Accion (Center for Education, Prevention and Action), is a bilingual community prevention program that operates a drop-in center with an emphasis on the Latino/a community where local residents have access to free health information and support services. CEPA is a program of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital. (413) 536-8721

6/12/2007
Sally Gore, resource librarian, UMass Medical School, came to Holyoke and gave a presentation at Western Mass Elder Care about MedlinePlus and Go Local Massachusetts, a directory of local providers of health services. She welcomes additions to the Go Local directory. A new input form has been added: Suggest a Resource.

5/16/2007
New resources of note:

AIDSinfo has launched an all-Spanish version infoSIDA which features information about HIV treatment and clinical trials. (US Department of Health and Human Service)
Health Literacy: New Fields, New Opportunities is a tutorial recently created by World Development with funding from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine New England Region (NN/LM-NER). After viewing the tutorial and following some of the recommended links, Sandy selected several entries to add to our Guides page, including:
Health Literacy wiki a handy collection of links and information about health literacy projects and practices. This is an area within the Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki.

5/10/2007
Judy Atkin, HCHL Treasurer, and Sandy Ward met to review our 2006 financial records in preparation for filing required tax forms. HCHL, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation under the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and thus must file Form PC (“Public Charitites”) each year with a copy of IRS 990ez. Sandy compiled a summary of statistics for the 2006 calendar year: we provided 75 demonstrations of the MedlinePlus database to people visiting our outreach events; over 350 people visited our exhibits at various locations and events, including the Health Information Week at the Public Library, the Senior Fest picnic, and our booth at the 2006 Holyoke Farmers Market. In addition, more in-depth training in MedlinePlus was provided to five staff at HHC and one at HPL. Our virtual library (website) had 125,937 visits, and over 1 million “hits”. We purchased $968 worth of health reference books and distributed them to six sites. This work was accomplished under two different NLM grants, with the paid help of Kathleen Packard and Jennifer Hartley. The tax forms were mailed May 14.

5/10/2007
The Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council met at the Nuestras Raíces Farm. Jeff Harness suggested that participants document HFFPC activities and process; Sandy responded by taking photographs of the meeting and its lovely outdoor setting.

4/23/2007
Editorial in The Republican congratulates Holyoke for receiving Kellogg grant. See also an article on April 20 (page B1-2) “Kellogg grant targets obesity“

4/19/2007
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation announced that Holyoke is one of nine Food and Fitness Community Grantees. “Each community group will receive a two-year, $500,000 grant to create a community action plan that maps out ways the community can support healthy children, help youth and families have access to local healthy food, and provide safe spaces and structures for physical activity and play.” [from W K Kellogg press release]

Many people and agencies in Holyoke worked hard on the application process last fall. Sandy Ward sent a letter of support on behalf of HCHL and assisted with proofreading and editing (Dec 2006). This spring Sandy has been representing HCHL in meetings of the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council, which will coordinate the Kellogg-funded project.

Front page story in The Republican, April 19, 2007: “$4 million awarded to Holyoke”
...“Jay Breines, executive director of the Holyoke Health Center, which is one of the main coalition partners, said that the group will be eligible for up to $4 million over 10 years if their planning and assessment efforts in the first two years pass muster.”

4/18/2007
Jennifer Hartley called to provide an update. She's happy at home with daughter Lily Angela Hartley, born April 2, 2007. Jen highly recommends the Birthing Center at Holyoke Medical Center, which provided good support during her days there.

3/28/2007
Michelle Eberle (Consumer Health Information Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine - New England) informs us that NLM has added several enhancements to the Health Topic pages on MedlinePlus, effective today. These changes include:

A photograph or illustration on each page in Health Topics
A brief summary of each condition at the top of the page (on half of the English pages). [All English and Spanish pages will have a summary in the near future.] “The brief summaries were composed by experienced medical writers and reviewed by NLM staff. The summaries are based largely on NIH and other government information. They are written at an easy to read level and include links to related topics.”
Synonyms will appear right under the health topic name.
A new category, labelled Start Here, will link users to overviews and important infomation for first-time visitors.
A centrally located Table of Contents will divide the MedlinePlus categories into six boxes to show users everything on the page at a glance.

NLM encourages your comments and suggestions about MedlinePlus.

3/27/2007
Our new HCHL homepage was launched at 5:30 pm, Tuesday, March 27, 2007. It features a prominent link to the new Senior Health page. Also added is a separate Special Topics page (consisting of information previously buried at the bottom of our Web Resources page). The navigation bars across all pages within our site have been updated to reflect the new choices. This News page is now called “What's New” and older sections of the former news page have been archived and linked from a History page. The About Us section has been redesigned and updated. Historical material from our previous website (2000-2003) has been moved into a section called /oldsite, accessible via our History page.

Your comments on the changes are welcome. If you find any non-working links, please notify our Webmaster (Sandy). Thanks.

3/9-25/2007
This HCHL website is being redesigned to incorporate a page for Senior Health. A new arrangement of the home page has been proposed. This News page is being shortened. Older news pages (including those from our previous website) will be archived. A work in progress...

3/7/07
The March issue of NIH News in Health (http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/) includes feature articles on nutrition (What is Healthy Eating?) and fitness (Do What Moves You). In the Health Capsules section, you'll find an update on Treating Asthma in Kids and a featured website: We Can! http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov.

We Can! is a national education program designed for families and communities to help children achieve a healthy weight. It focuses on 3 important behaviors: improved food choices, increased physical activity and reduced screen time. You'll find practical tips and resources for immediate use.

3/5/07
Kathleen Packard forwarded a link to an article entitled A Checkup of Online Health Sites by Paula J. Hane posted March 1st on ITI News Link (Information Today, Inc.)

2/8/07
The newly expanded Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council met in the City Council chamber. Sandy Ward will be representing HCHL at these monthly meetings from now on. This Council will play an important role in coordinating projects under the new Food and Fitness initiative proposed last fall under the invitation of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. We await word on whether the Holyoke project will be funded. Next HFFPC meeting will be March 15.

2/8/07
Suggestions for improving our HCHL website were solicited, and several recommendations have been received. Ellen Moriarty, President of the Holyoke Public Library Corp, suggests that we develop a section devoted to the elderly. John Gurvitch suggests shortening this News page, moving older entries to a history section. Additional suggestions are welcome. The process of revising the site will be gradual, as our webmaster is enrolled in two Spanish language courses at Holyoke Community College this spring. The Spanish and Multicultural page was updated Feb 7, 2007, prompted by news that the NN/LM Multilingual Resources had added a new feature --a Google Custom Search box allowing comprehensive search of the contents of their site, making it easier to find resources on a topic in a particular language without having to search through each individual source.

1/25/07
The Holyoke Family Literacy Coalition (HFLC) website has been updated. Jody Spitz and Sandy Ward worked together to revise some out-dated addresses and phone numbers. We also invited the new librarians at HPL to attend HFCL's meetings (2nd Fridays of each month). (The former Children's Librarian used to be a regular participant).

1/12/07
Holyoke Public Library has publicized the arrival of new reference librarian Cheryl Livengood. (See article and photo in The Sun, January 12-18, 2007, page 14.) Cheryl works full-time and is available afternoons and evenings Monday-Thursday as well as daytimes Friday. Sandy has met several times with Cheryl and provided a brief MedlinePlus training session. The magazine version of MedlinePlus is on display now in the current periodical racks in the HPL Reference Room.

1/5/07
Kathy Blanchard, LPN, the new Health Promotion Coordinator at the Holyoke Council on Aging, met with Sandy for an overview of the HCHL project and a training session in use of MedlinePlus.

1/4/07
Jenny Navasky, HHC, invited Sandy to come to Holyoke Health Center to discuss possible areas of collaboration in support of adolescent health services. After a good meeting with Jenny, Sandy stopped by to see Gail Gramarossa, HHC, for a brief update.

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